A Winter at the Earth's Core
by CityCat
Summary: When cold weather sets in Endsville, school closes for the winter recession. As friends disperse for the holidays, an unexpected visit to Billy's house leads to a family vacation in the center of the Earth!
1. Nergal's Visit

**A Winter at the Earth's Core**

It was a chilly Friday afternoon in Endsville that marked the last day of the school semester. Kids swarmed out of every door as the bell rang, all too eager to enjoy the first snow of winter. Billy and Mandy were among the last to leave the school on account of Mandy's slight headache, which made her exponentially more sensitive to noise. Between incessant chatter of the season vacation and the full schedule of semester exams, she had zero tolerance for Billy's usual nonsense. "Hey Mandy," Billy piped up as they began their trek home through a couple inches of snow. "Do you want to build a—"

"No," Mandy snapped back. Short and simple. Billy shrugged and let a moment pass before trying a second attempt to make conversation.

"It doesn't have to be a—"

"I said no!" she repeated louder with all seriousness.

"Aww, but why not?" Billy frowned, a bit hurt. "Don't-cha wanna make a snow angel? Or a snowball fort? Or-Or we can do that thing when we have those metal sticks on our shoes and we run around on a frozen lake!" he half-screamed with enthusiasm. The slap from Mandy was powerful enough to make his head turn.

"I told you: I have a headache." She poked his chest with a commanding finger. "That means I want peace and quiet. Got it?"

"Mm-hmm." Billy nodded, conveying that he understood. They continued to walk in perfect silence for a couple of minutes until Billy had the urge to ask one more question. "Hey Mandy?" he asked, being sure to keep his volume to a decibel above a whisper. "Where'd you say you were going again for break?"

"Hawaii," she answered automatically, staring at all the boot-prints on the snowy sidewalk with her coal-black eyes. She knew that there would be a follow-up question from her friend.

"Ohhh. Why are you going there?"

"It's too cold here," she replied in an uninterested tone. "My parents wanted a "family trip" to Hawaii for the longest time, so I finally said yes. School breaks are ideal for those sorts of vacations." As physically small as she was, everyone—friends and family alike—knew that Mandy made the rules for pretty much every occasion. She carried an aura of power with her wherever she went, and she knew exactly how to utilize it.

"Is it warm in Hawaii?"

"It's in the Ring of Fire, so yes. At least, it's less cold there."

"Sounds nice," Billy mused thoughtfully. His nose was bright red and began to run in reaction to a biting breeze of frost. The two friends finally came to the fork in the road that separated their houses. After a brief exchange of goodbyes, Billy continued to walk solo to his front door, now bereft of one friend to share his winter break with.

Deep within the center of the Earth, two demons were having a light conversation between father and son, the latter having just arrived home from school and was emptying out his backpack now that the semester was over. "Hello, son!" came the endearing voice of Nergal—the nearly shapeless black creature of the night, with lime-green eyes, dull purple pupils, and dressed in a black business suit over a blood-red dress shirt. His smile comprised of a mouthful of shark teeth that matched his eyes, but despite his appearance, his inner demonic nature was always carefully tucked away in front of his only child. He stood a little over six feet tall in the doorway of his son's bedroom. "How was your last day?"

Nergal Junior—most just call him "Junior" these days—casually tossed his science folder over his shoulder and turned to his father. "Great, Dad," he spoke softly in a shakily unstable monotone that carried a hint of eerie inhumanness. He pulled himself up on his bed and laid back. "Same as any other day." Junior was rightfully named so, for he took after his father in practically all aspects from his physical features to his supernatural abilities. He, too, had lime-green eyes behind circular, black-rimmed spectacles, a pointy smile, and a tolerance to an inferno's heat. Furthermore, he inherited the ability to shape shift into any form he wanted, though he preferred people. His favorite form was that of the first human boy he met a few winters ago. He acquired the pale human skin and a full head of black hair that curled back in the front. Junior knew that he would never be "normal," but his human persona was the closest that he'd ever get to being like the other kids. Therefore, he decided to keep it in hopes of one day being seen as a "normal" member of society, and not just some four-eyed freak from the center of the Earth.

Nergal sat on the edge of his son's bed. "So, did you make any plans with your friends like I asked you to?" Junior averted his eyes to the wall, frowning slightly.

"W-Well, ah…uhm…"

"You didn't," the older demon correctly deduced with disappointment. He sighed and shook his head. "You have two whole weeks to have fun without school getting in the way. Isn't there anyone you'd like to spend more time with? Play games with? See a movie with? Embark on a world conquest with?!" he suggested with a belligerent grin and flaming eyes. Junior raised an eyebrow at him and shrugged.

"Not really, Dad. No one would want to be seen with the freak." This made Nergal upset, right to the point where an electric black snake sprouted involuntarily from his back, snapping at the air. He hated to see his son unhappy, especially a boy so good, so deserving of friends.

"Nonsense, Junior. Who's been calling you names?"

"Everyone," came the quiet, nearly inaudible reply. Nergal wrapped a comforting arm around Junior's shoulders.

"You know what?" he started in a dangerously low tone as another snake grew out of the other side of his back. "They're all jealous of you, every single one of them." His hand clenched into a black fist. "They're too proud to accept you, so they've turned on you in a pathetic effort to make themselves look better in their own eyes. It's that selfish narcissism that humans have that makes them hate the things that they cannot understand." Two more snakes grew up and out for a total of four additional slithering bodies, each ready to fight and defend until kingdom come. "They don't deserve your friendship."

"But what about Mom?" Junior queried, unphased by the snakes. He had grown used to his dad getting so worked up so easily. Nergal let the question linger in the air for just enough time to pull his snakes back into his being.

"The one exception," he explained, holding up a hasty finger. "Your mother loves me for my personality just as I am, "freak" or not." A tender smile appeared on his lips as he tousled Junior's hair. "Ah, son…I sure hope that you'll find a companion who loves you unconditionally too." He gave a light chuckle as an optimistic gleam shined in his green eyes. "What am I talking about? Of course, you will. I have not entirely given up on humanity yet!"

"I wish I wasn't so lonely, Dad. I had hoped that just one person would reach out and plan something for us to do." Junior folded his hands in his lap and stared at his curled fingers. "But nobody did. Not even Billy."

"Billy?" Nergal repeated, tapping his chin as an idea came to mind. "Well, why don't you ask _him_? He is family, after all, and there are no friends like family." Technically, Junior and Billy were cousins by marriage. Nergal's human wife just happened to be Billy's aunt on his father's side.

"He wouldn't want to hang out with me," Junior sulked, already suspecting the worst. His father simply grinned with the enthusiasm of a businessman that refused to take 'no' for an answer.

"Oh, really? Well, we'll see about that!" He jumped up from the bed and headed for the telephone before stopping himself. _No…_he mused. _I can do better than that. I'll make a personal visit myself._

Billy was sitting at the table in his kitchen and sipping hot cocoa through a crazy straw when the doorbell rang. He had wrapped himself up in several blankets that he found around the house in an effort to keep warm against the increasingly cold weather. His nose kept running, no matter how many tissues he used to keep it dry. "I'll get it," Harold—Billy's dad—volunteered. Harold looked very similar to his son, only distinctly more obese and with a lazier glaze in his eyes. He slowly rose from the comfy couch cushion that faced a television set and answered the door. He smiled in surprise when he saw who it was. "Oh! Hello, delivery man." An average-looking guy in his thirties and dressed in postal blue tipped his hat.

"Package for Billy's family," he announced, jutting out a clipboard for a signature. Beside him sat a large package that could have held a fake Christmas tree, which wasn't uncommon to see around the holidays.

"We're Billy's family," Harold readily parroted back, scrawling a messy attempt at signing his name. The other gentleman didn't seem to care in the least.

"Thank you. Have a nice day." With that, the delivery man turned on his heel and drove away in his truck. Harold took the top corners of the tall package and began to lug it inside, grunting loudly with each pull. The straining noises caught Billy's attention, who peeked inside the foyer to see what was going on.

"Hey, Dad. What's—oooh!" His eyes widened with curiosity at the massive box. "Is that an early Christmas present? Is it for me? Is it a lifetime supply of chocolate bars?!" His dad finally got it all the way in and closed the front door, taking a moment to examine the box.

"There's no return address, so I guess we'll have to open it to find out. Go get the scissors!" Harold gave the box a powerful shove so as to cut it better, knocking it over on its side.

"Oww," came a richly sophisticated voice from the inside of the package. Harold's jaw nearly dropped as the box began to rock back and forth by itself.

"It's alive!" he shrieked, darting away as fast as he could. The box gave in to the pressure at last and busted open, revealing a slightly disheveled Nergal.

"Wait a minute; it's just me," Nergal stated, waving his hands to calm Harold down. He smiled at Billy as the boy ran into the room. "Hello, Billy," he cheerfully greeted his only nephew. "Please be careful with those scissors." Billy froze in place and waved weakly.

"Hi, Uncle Nergal." He moved closer to his dad and whispered into his ear. "Uhh, Dad, what is he doing in our house?" It wasn't that Billy didn't like Nergal, but no one could deny that he was a bit odd and kind of creepy. Years of loneliness living in the Earth's core had gotten to his head at one time or another, depriving him of all social skills and leaving him with a deep desire to make friends of his own. He had to learn the hard way that force was never the answer to get others to like him.

"I was about to ask the same thing," Harold whispered back, feeling duped that something cool and fun could have been in the box, like a mini refrigerator.

"I can hear both of you," Nergal said, raising an eyebrow. Nothing got past his supernatural senses; that, and no one in Billy's family ever grasped the sacred art of being discreet. He decided to answer the question anyway. "I am here because I wanted to…" He had to choose his words carefully and rationally as he had a tendency to blurt out awkward and socially inappropriate randomness. First, he thought of his goal: get Billy a play-date with Junior. Second, he needed a rationale. Loneliness was the obvious one, but he deliberately wanted to stay away from that word so as not to sound desperate. He looked at Billy, all bundled up in blankets, and thought of the freezing weather. "I just wanted to invite you all over for the weekend," he started out. "Since you've never spent the night at my place before, I thought that this winter vacation would be the most _delightful_ opportunity for a little get-together with family." Billy and his dad glanced at each other with blank expressions. Nergal's sharp-edged smile did not seem to convince anyone.

"Uhh, no thanks, Nergal," Harold bluntly replied. "We're perfectly happy up here where the sun shines, thank you very much."

"But you haven't even given the idea a chance!" the demon pointed out, crossing his arms. "I can prove to you that it is just as fun…no, _more _fun down there than it is up here. Not to mention," he added tactfully. "The center of the world is quite warm and _very _comfortable." He smiled at Billy in particular. "You could drink all the hot chocolate you'd like."

"We-ell," Billy mused. "Is it better than Hawaii?"

"Absolutely!" Nergal nodded with blind confidence. He had never been to Hawaii, so he assumed that it was also snowing heavily this time of year.

"I guess it could be a good idea," Harold added, his thoughts revolving around sinking into a toasty Jacuzzi while listening to classic rock n' roll music. "After all, it's just for the weekend." Nergal watched intently as the two humans left him to go pack their things. _That was easier than I thought, _he mentally celebrated. His grin stretched from ear to ear._ I'm finally going to have company!_


	2. Into the Earth's Core

After lugging his bags downstairs, Billy searched around for some paper and a pencil. _Better leave a note,_ he decided, thinking of Grim. Having the grim reaper as a best friend came with many positives—one of them being protection. If something happened to him down in the Earth's core where no one else was around, at least one supernatural being would know where to find him. He couldn't find a pen, so he scribbled down a brief message in crayon: _Grim: We are spending winter with Uncle Nergal. You can join us if you want. Oh, and in case I die…bury me with all my action figures so they won't have to say goodbye. Also, the pudding in the fridge is mine! –Billy_

There were a few spelling and grammatical errors in the note, but through Billy's eyes, it was legible enough. He knew that despite the side illustration of a killer bunny flying on the moon beside the words, Grim would understand exactly what he meant. His mother and father were waiting in the foyer with his uncle, all packed and ready to go. "Billy?" Nergal called from his spot by the door.

"Coming," Billy called back as he followed the demon's voice. He picked up his bags and loaded them out the door. He saw no car, which made him worry with fear that he would freeze before any transportation came. "Uhm…How are we getting to your house, exactly?" He glanced at Nergal, who was staring intently at his watch.

"Any moment now," he replied in an assuring tone. "I've been teaching Junior how to drive the car." A horn sounded as the ground began to shake. The road in front of Billy's house broke into two slabs of asphalt as the tip of a huge drill protruded from beneath the pavement. A stereotypical family car tailed the drill as it rolled into view with the small form of Nergal Jr. sitting at the wheel, propped on a booster cushion. Nergal had tricked out an average town car to operate underground by attaching a large drill to the hood. For Junior's benefit, he removed the gas and brake pedals and replaced them with a second control stick on the wheel. That way, anyone too short to reach the pedals or with missing/non-working legs could drive it just as easily as anyone else. The car came to a slow stop in the center between the two neighborhood sidewalks. Junior rolled down a window and waved. "Perfect parking, son!" His father beamed. "Right between the lines!"

"Thanks, Pop." Junior returned the smile as he hopped out of the driver's seat. He was wearing his usual winter outfit: red gloves, a matching red scarf, and an all black shirt, pants, and shoes. He approached Billy with shy eyes; he really didn't want to worsen Billy's impression of him, knowing fully well that his supernatural abilities could be very intimidating. "Hey, cousin." Billy just seemed to stare and blink at him in response. Junior's smile ran away from his face as he struggled to find something easy to say. "Uh…Want me to help you with your bags?"

Billy shrugged. "Okay," he quickly answered, dumping his stuff into Junior's arms. Billy's work ethic derived from a saying that his father told him once: "When life gives you an opportunity to be lazy, don't question it."

Junior struggled under the weight until his body naturally adjusted. One of the perks to being a form-shifter was being able to alter body tone and physique, even to superhuman strength, speed, and endurance. He tossed the luggage into the trunk with ease, and then helped Billy's parents with theirs. Simultaneously, Nergal opened up the car doors and—with the use of his expandable snakes—loaded the family into their seats in an orderly fashion and buckled them in. "All set, everyone?" he asked cheerfully as he slid into the driver's seat, Junior taking shotgun.

"Uhh…" the three humans began with apprehension as the engine started. Nergal either didn't hear or plainly chose to ignore them as he locked the doors, shifted the gears, and plunged the town car back into the miles of earth from where it came.

"Nergal," Gladys, Billy's mother, spoke up after a moment had passed. "When you said that you live in the Earth's core, I thought you meant a warmer place. Like Hawaii? Or Arizona?"

"No, no, that was all literal," Nergal clarified as he met her eyes through the rear-view mirror. Gladys fidgeted under her seatbelt, more than a little creeped out by his unblinking stare. "I do really mean the very center, though I'm sorry if you found my words misleading." When she seemed to be at a loss for words, he continued to make conversation. "It is _much_ warmer down here. Think of the volcanoes, dense caves—positively swimming in magma. You will never have a reason to shudder or shiver." He smiled wide, showing off his teeth.

"I don't know about that," she murmured under her breath. Nergal and Junior raised one eyebrow in unison, both overhearing that comment. The larger demon frowned slightly, picking up that his guests weren't too keen on being around him, family or not.

"Of course, if you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask," he offered. "You might want to think about activities that you all like to do—things that we could do as a family." Junior turned his head to the backseat, his lips quivering at the anxious expressions of his cousin, aunt, and uncle. They reminded him of the way a dog might sometimes look when it realizes that it has an appointment with the vet. Billy's eyes darted to his window a few times, a smile almost appearing on his face as they drove past the bones of an undiscovered dinosaur.

"You can sleep in my room if you want, Billy," Junior told him. "You can show me how to have a sleepover. I've never had one before." That got Billy out of his shell. Only on rare occasions did someone ever ask him for guidance.

"We-ell, okay. But you have to do what I say without question if you want to learn how to have fun." Junior showed a small smile.

"It's a deal," he agreed, giving him a thumbs-up. The house in the center of the Earth was now visible through the windshield. It molded around the twists and turns of the caved space, but it looked well-insulated from the heat and pressure from the weight of the world.

"Here we are, family. Home, sweet home." Nergal parked the car in the "garage" part of the cave and unlocked the doors. All five stepped out and took a deep breath of the thick air clouding like invisible fog around the house.

"Mmm! Something smells good!" Harold exclaimed, licking his lips at the aroma.

"That would be dinner." Nergal smiled happily. "We're having calamari and mahi-mahi."

"Uhh…Smart words mean what?" Billy's head hurt just by listening to words more than three syllables long.

"Squid and fish," Junior clarified, giving his cousin a questioning glance.

"I've never heard of that before," Billy said.

"It's brain food!" Nergal supplied.

Billy grinned at this. "That's why I've never heard of it." Nergal led them inside the house through the garage door and gestured to a couple of unoccupied bedrooms.

"This is where you'll be sleeping," he announced. "Unless you'd be more comfortable in Junior's room," he added to Billy with a friendly wink. Billy looked at the bare bedroom, and then at Junior. It was either sleeping alone in this strange place or sharing a room with the half-demon child.

"Uhh, I think I'll stay with Junior, thanks." Junior smiled meekly and took Billy's bags in his snakelike extensions, leaving his hands free to show him around.

"This way, cousin." The two boys began to meander through the crooked house cave. Billy noticed that everything in this house was either made of marble or stone. The only exceptions were the obvious human-made items, such as a television set and all of the technology for the lighting. Junior talked about the antique items they passed and where in the world his dad found certain pieces, but history was too boring for Billy to take any interest in. Worst of all, Junior kept using big words that he couldn't understand, such as "infrastructure" and "evolutionary" and "transcendentalism."

"This is my room," he said at last, opening a door at the end of the hallway before the kitchen. His bedroom had no walls, but was insulated within a sulcus of the cave, creating a peninsula of sorts with a high rock ceiling. Junior had a simple blue bed on a wooden frame, his only other furniture a wooden dresser with a mirror and a desk and office chair for homework and studying. Little known fact: the most socially deprived people often have too much time on their hands and would gladly do schoolwork to fill the void. Having a nonexistent social life left plenty of space for thinking; no wonder Junior and Mandy were the smartest kids in school. "You can sleep wherever you want."

"Oh! Can I have the bed?" Billy asked, pointing to the lone white pillow propped up against the headboard.

"Uh…I guess?" Junior's black snakelike appendages lowered the bags down beside the bed. He didn't really mind sharing, but he wasn't convinced that Billy would treat his things with the care and responsibility that he did. The curse about common sense is dealing with people who don't have it, and then pretending not to be judgmental. "I guess I could…sleep somewhere else…" he finished lamely, thinking of where he put his sleeping bag.

"Thanks, Junior." Billy passed him a friendly smile, feeling a bit better about staying so far underground. _This isn't so bad, _he concluded. _It might actually be fun!_

"Dinner's ready!" Nergal called, his voice reaching every corner of the house. "Come and get it!" The dining table was set for six: Billy and his parents on one side, and Junior and his parents on the other. Nergal even went the extra mile to make little place cards so that everyone knew where to sit. The calamari was on the table first as the appetizer—two pounds of steaming hot deep fried breaded rings of squid sitting adjacent to two classic dipping sauces: sweet tartar and marinara. _Everyone is going to love this! _

Harold and Gladys came into the room first with hungry smiles. "Oh, everything looks so…warm!" Gladys noted, appreciating the hot food after trying to shut out the cold in their house just a mere hour ago.

"Consider it a _warm _welcome," Nergal punned playfully.

"Something smells fishy in here," Harold quipped as his sister entered with the main entrée.

"That's the mahi-mahi, Harold," said a raspy voice belonging to a middle-aged woman with bright blonde hair, deep red lipstick, and a larger nose. She wasn't the most intelligent person, but she sure wasn't stupid like her brother and her nephew. To this day, she still never figured out a logical conclusion as to why Harold married way before she met Nergal. _The best had been saved for last,_ Nergal liked to tell her, along with several other romantic clichés.

"Oh…right, Sis," Harold lamely recovered himself. "I knew that."

Junior and Billy arrived last to the table and looked at the place cards one by one. Junior took his seat once he found his name, and Billy simply waited until everyone else sat down to take the last available chair. Nergal sat at the head of the table, positively beaming at the reality of having a family dinner. With two pairs of tongs, he dexterously dished out dinner to every plate, leaving a little extra on the platters in case anyone wanted seconds.

Nergal raised his water glass. "Let's eat; eat, and be happy. To…family!" Only his wife, Sis, raised her glass with him and drank to the toast. Junior held up his cup halfway out of respect, but he knew it would take time for his cousin and extended family to accept him and his father. His dad was the most honorable and caring man he knew, and it emotionally pained him to see him in a depressed state. A demon by nature possesses an intuitive mind, able to discern the lies from the truth, and Junior knew a feigned smile when he saw one. If there was one lesson that he learned from going to a human school, it was that people liked you more if you were "normal." He had heard the word "freak" so many times that he forgot where the worth was in being extraordinary.

Dinner took his mind off his dark thoughts for the moment, and it was delicious. Junior lost himself in his senses like taking a _soma _vacation; good food always seemed to make everything better, from sight to smell, to touch, to taste. He could loll his head to some invisible beat and let it take him to a utopia for a moment or two. And the plate was empty when he came back. "Junior?" his dad asked in a tone that was waiting for a response. "What do you think?"

"About what, Dad?"

"Billy asked if you would like to go to the arcade with him tomorrow." Junior looked at his cousin who gave him an encouraging smile.

"Sure," he agreed. "But what's at an arcade?"

"Games!" the human boy exclaimed with wide eyes.

"Games," Junior repeated. "Like Monopoly? Clue? Chutes and Ladders?"

"Nah, those are stupid board games for losers." Nergal and Junior stiffened at the insult but didn't object. "Arcades have videogames, except that the only scores that get saved are the winners. And if you're good at a game, you get more tickets, which you can use to get cool stuff."

"It sounds like fun," Junior replied softly, envisioning what the arcade might look like. He imagined it to be like a casino with flashing lights and cool sound effects—only on a child's level. Or possibly something like a carnival. _They have tickets and prizes in those too, right?_

"A very good idea, Billy," Nergal commended. By now, everyone had finished eating. Harold kept eyeing the leftovers sitting in the center of the table, debating on whether he should go for thirds. "Best run along to bed, you two. The sooner you get your rest, the more you'll enjoy game day tomorrow."

"Okay," Junior and Billy said in unison, scooting out of their chairs. They said their "good night" farewells and headed back to Junior's room.

"So…" Nergal leaned in closer to the other adults with an excited grin on his face. "Who's up for some bowling tomorrow?"

Billy yawned as he pulled his pajamas on and climbed into Junior's bed. He felt very comfortable down in the Earth's core, which was one thing that he didn't expect. He also did not count on Nergal and Junior to be as laid back as they were, almost "normal." _Almost. _Billy reached out from under him and pulled out a fark brown teddy bear with a large pink heart on its tummy. "You still sleep with your bear?" he asked Junior, who was nestled inside a blue sleeping bag on the floor.

"No." Junior's eyes narrowed defensively at first, then relaxed. "Well…sometimes. He…He keeps me company." Billy stifled a giggle. If everyone else at school knew about this, they'd never let Junior live it down. He'd only be bullied more, and that was a terrible fate Billy could understand. He smiled.

"Here you go," he said, holding out the bear. Junior returned his smile and took his stuffed friend, sliding the bear into what little available space the sleeping bag allowed.

"Thanks, Billy." Junior took off his glasses and set them on his dresser. "I think you're a pretty cool friend." A light snoring sound confirmed that the other boy was already fast asleep. Junior sighed and turned on his side. _My friend. _That night, he slept more soundly than he ever did before.

* * *

**A Note from CityCat: Hi there! If you are reading this story and you like what you see, please show some love and leave me a review! Comments, questions, and suggestions are always welcome. Thanks, and have a wonderful day! **


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